


something old and something new

by kittebasu (chanyeol)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Family, Friendship, M/M, Platonic bed sharing, handholding and other shenannigans, well... maybe platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 14:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2816054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chanyeol/pseuds/kittebasu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And Kageyama could pretend like he didn’t care one way or the other <i>all he wanted</i>, Shouyou wasn’t going to let him pout his way through winter holidays with that grim-reaper look on his face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	something old and something new

**Author's Note:**

  * For [indi_go](https://archiveofourown.org/users/indi_go/gifts).



> hi! This was going to be a tiny thing for your cute kagehina + natsu prompt… but now this is a medium sized thing… for your cute kagehina + natsu prompt… I hope you enjoy it!

☃

"That sucks!" Shouyou proclaimed, spiking the ball down right between Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, reveling slightly in the pissed off tilt to Tsukishima’s mouth.

"Focus," said Kageyama, huffing.

"Do you think," Shouyou added, as an afterthought, "it’s because you’re always scowling that your mom’s going away for the winter vacation without you? Maybe you just suck the Christmas spirit right out—"

"Shut up, idiot!" Kageyama firmly sent him a toss, and Shouyou gleefully smacked it, this time pointing it directly at this super tall first year who would probably be even bigger than Tsukishima next year. He fumbled the receive, and Shouyou grinned at him as Tsukishima swore under his breath about hyperactive people the size of jellybeans. "She just wants to spend time with her boyfriend, or whatever."

"It’s not fair that you’ll be alone all holidays, though!" Shouyou’s grin collapsed as he suddenly thought about Kageyama, all alone in that big house of his, probably scowling at the television while not remotely understanding their winter math homework. Not that _Shouyou_ understood it, either, but he’d have plenty of other things to do. Like tease his sister and help his mom bake cookies and challenge his dad to video games and other super-awesome-fun winter vacation stuff. And then on New Year’s, his parents would take Shouyou and Natsu to the shrine, like they did every year, and Shouyou’s dad would tell stories about how he used to prop Shouyou up on his shoulders so that he could see above the crowd. Kageyama wouldn’t have that, this year. Vaguely, Shouyou wondered if he’d ever had that. "It’s already cold outside, why would you want to be lonely, too?"

Kageyama flushed, his grimace deepening as he sent Shouyou a pinpoint, this time, and Shouyou had no choice but to strike it down the line. "I told her it was fine," Kageyama muttered. "I don’t get lonely, anyway."

Shouyou gave Kageyama an unimpressed look. In Shouyou’s opinion, Kageyama lied entirely too often about stuff like that. Not that he was a _liar_ in the normal sense of the word, just that he pretended all the time like he was some super-serious grownup or whatever, when really he was a lot like Shouyou. That’s why Shouyou liked Kageyama, anyway—because even though their personalities were so different, deep down, there were parts of them that were so the same it kinda freaked Shouyou out, sometimes.

"Still!" Shouyou put his hands on his hips, feeling the sweat drip down from his hair to crawl down his spine. The gym was actually pretty cold, but he’d been jumping around all afternoon chasing tosses, and Kageyama was being relentless thanks to yet another loss this year at inter-high. Kageyama hadn’t cried this time, when Shouyou did, but he’d wanted to, Shouyou had been able to tell. Even so, Kageyama and Tsukishima’d had matching dry faces, only Kageyama’s eyes had been all soft and wet-looking, and that had only made Shouyou cry harder, feeling like he was crying for both of them. "Not having anyone to attend Hatsumode with really _sucks_ , Kageyama!"

"You said that already, dweeb," snapped Kageyama. "Are you trying to rub it in, or what?"

"No! Of course I’m not! I’m just saying—"

"As enjoyable as it is watching the King and his most loyal jester have a heart-to-heart," Tsukishima raised both eyebrows mockingly, his glasses glinting, "do you think you could focus on the match?"

Shouyou stuck his tongue out at the jerk, then flinched and moved behind Kageyama when Tsukishima narrowed his eyes in return. Yamaguchi was chuckling, and Shouyou glared at him too, for good measure, because he was always letting Tsukishima get away with far too much teasing.

Tanaka, who was playing as their third, jabbed his pointer finger through the net to pin down Tsukishima. "We’re beating you anyway, tough guy!"

Tsukishima sneered. "Only because Hinata is used to playing brainless volleyball," he replied, and Shouyou fumed, feeling his face go red in response to Tsukishima’s taunts. "I notice you haven’t managed any points, Tanaka- _senpai_." The sarcastic weight on Tanaka’s favorite word had smoke figuratively coming out of his ears, and Shouyou rushed over to reassure Tanaka that he was an amazing upperclassman, really, because he _was_ , and Ennoshita, who was captain this year, had his arms crossed as he looked at it all with the same sense of resignation Shouyou felt when faced with an English exam.

"Hey!" Yachi shouted, her high voice cutting through all of theirs. "Let’s focus on practice! This is the last one until next year, you know, and after vacation it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump to Spring Highs!" She smiled at them nervously, blushing, when they all gave her their attention, but then she squared her shoulders. "Um, fighting!" She pumped her fist energetically, and Mr. Takeda, who stood next to her, nodded approvingly.

Nishinoya cheered loudly from over where he and Coach Ukai were practicing difficult receives, wiping sweat from his forehead with a visibly bruised arm. "Go Karasuno!"

"Whoo!" Shouyou cheered too, because Noya was so _cool_ , and Kageyama rolled his eyes. He didn’t look upset though, just slightly constipated, which probably just meant he was feeling human emotions and didn’t know how to express them again.

Tsukishima sighed, the teasing gleam in his eye flickering out. "All this team spirit stuff is kind of gross."

"You can’t play volleyball by yourself," Kageyama replied, like he was some expert on teamwork now, and Shouyou hid a laugh behind his hand as he reflexively moved up closer to the net, waiting for Tanaka’s next serve.

"Whatever you say, Your Majesty." Tsukishima’s lips twitched when Kageyama just narrowed his eyes back at him, his posture shifting to something more serious. Shouyou wriggled in anticipation—Kageyama’s tosses were even more fun to hit when he was _determined_.

"The three of us over here are definitely going to keep wiping the floor with you." In response, Tsukishima smirked, breaking the seriousness of the moment, and even Kageyama almost-smiled at their teammate.

"Well, I guess I could go easy on you if it means that much to you," replied Tsukishima, and Tanaka shouted, serving the ball with more fury than his last few turns.

Shouyou laughed excitedly, getting pumped all over again. His shirt stuck to him with sweat and his thighs ached, but he couldn’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon.

After what Shouyou felt was an extremely satisfying victory against Tsukishima, (and Yamaguchi and the big, big first year, too, but Shouyou didn’t nurse the same kind of grudge) it was time to head home.

He was bouncing in place as he threw on his coat, thrilled for the start of holidays, but Kageyama was taking his time, going through all the motions of getting ready to go methodically, almost like he didn’t want to leave. The first years were still cleaning the gym, a job Shouyou had been happy to hand off, but they were almost wrapping up, mops squeaking as they dragged across clean linoleum, by the time Kageyama had zipped his coat up and pulled his bag up onto his shoulder.

"Geez, could you move _any slower_?!" Shouyou asked, waving his arms. "This is vacation we’re talking about, here!"

"Whatever," Kageyama said, following Shouyou to the doors of the gym. He looked up at him right before Shouyou opened the door, and his face immediately transformed into a really scary expression, like his eyebrows were escalators going in opposite directions up his forehead.

He grabbed Shouyou by the collar of his jacket, scowling. "You can’t go outside like that."

"Like what?" Shouyou looked down at himself. Gym clothes? A coat? His bag? Nothing seemed to be missing.

"With your coat unzipped and no hat. It’s December. It didn’t snow last night, it _iced._ "

"But I’m all hot from practice," Shouyou whined, and Kageyama snorted, letting go of Shouyou’s collar only to spin him around, yanking at the bottom hem of Shouyou’s jacket and zipping him up, all the way to the neck.

"That’s how you get sick, dumbass," Kageyama said, as Shouyou watched him with wide eyes. Kageyama’s knuckles tickled the underside of his chin, and he was standing really, really close. Shouyou could practically count Kageyama’s eyelashes, like this. He sure had a lot of them, and they curled up a little, like-- "Don’t look at me like that."

"You’re being… nice…" Shouyou’s voice came out kinda strange. "Maybe _you’re_ sick."

"Shut up," Kageyama muttered. "At least I can take care of myself. How old are you, again?"

He avoided Shouyou’s gaze, though, looking in every other direction, and his hands dropped away from Shouyou’s winter puffy coat, finding a new home in his pockets as Shouyou pushed open the door.

Hunching against the blistering cold, they made it to the bike rack. "Ah, I can’t ride like this!" Shouyou looked in dismay at the rattling bike chains. "I’ll get blown over!"

"Lightweight," teased Kageyama. "It’ll take longer to get home, like this."

Kageyama didn’t look too upset about that, Shouyou noticed, when he peeked up at his friend through lids half shut against the wind. Biting his lip, Shouyou wondered if, maybe, Kageyama didn’t actually want to go home, if there wasn’t going to be anyone there. That made something weird and uncomfortable wriggle around in Shouyou’s belly, like bad milk or like an _OFFICIAL MATCH_ or something else that might send him running for the restroom, and…

If it were Shouyou, who was going home to that big house of Kageyama’s, knowing it would be empty… Well, if it were Shouyou, he’d want to stay out as long as he could, too. And Kageyama could pretend like he didn’t care one way or the other _all he wanted_ , Shouyou wasn’t going to let Kageyama pout his way through winter holidays with that grim-reaper look on his face.

Pulling his bike out free of the rack so that he could walk it home, where at least it would be safely inside, Shouyou looked hesitantly up at Kageyama. "You know, I’m really looking forward to Christmas."

Kageyama grunted, curling forward and into himself. It might have been the cold, but Shouyou didn’t think it was, and he had always trusted his instincts, when it came to dealing with Kageyama.

"My parents always stay home with us that day, and my mom and I make hundreds of cookies in lots of flavors, shaped like baby animals and stars and stuff, and Natsu eats them—she’s a huge mess, you know, getting crumbs all over the floor, and then _I’m_ the one who has to clean it all up!"

Shouyou laughed, and Kageyama’s lips quivered, a bit, though that could have been because the wind had just chosen to send a particularly strong gust their way.

"My dad sneaks in later and steals a few when he thinks my mom isn’t paying attention so that he can eat more than she usually lets him! But she always notices, and winks at me, and we eat a few extra ourselves, just to even the score!" Shouyou let the delight of it fill him up, and when he looked back over at Kageyama, he was sort of… staring. "And we do our shrine visit, on the first every year, and if Natsu’s fortune is bad, I tie it up on the tree for her, and—"

"You should drink milk with them." Kageyama shifted so his face was now hidden in the collar of his coat, but Shouyou could make out that his eyebrows were pinched together. "The cookies. Then maybe you’ll grow."

"Come down here and say that to my face!" Shouyou scurried ahead, just enough that he could spin and stand in front of Kageyama, keeping him from moving forward. "Anyway, that wasn’t my point!"

His face was stinging from the wind, and his teeth chattered. He’d been so hot, before, but now he was freezing, and his lip stung where he’d bitten it earlier. He gripped more tightly at his bike, holding it up with only one hand as it shook in his grip.

"You had a point?" Kageyama’s jaw jutted out, and there was faint stubble there. Shouyou hadn’t known Kageyama needed to shave. Since when had Kageyama needed to shave? He blinked to refocus on what Kageyama was saying. "Can you get to it then?"

"The point is!" He jabbed his index finger in Kageyama’s direction. "There are always too many cookies, even with four of us! Maybe if there were five of us, none of the cookies would go to waste!"

"What’s that even mean?" Kageyama sucked on his teeth, eyes all squinted with suspicion. His collar wasn’t made to his face from the front, and Shouyou felt weird looking at the uncertainty in the line of Kageyama’s mouth.

"Come and spend the winter holidays at my house!" Shouyou blurted out. "That way you can eat the extra cookies! My mom always buys lots of milk, so—" At Kageyama’s startled, disbelieving look, Shouyou had to fight a blush at the same time as a full-body shiver. "And you know how my sister is really loud and whines a lot, so you’ll have to pay attention to her!"

"So not any different from dealing with you," Kageyama finally said, after a pause so long and scary it reminded Shouyou of that hit to the back of the head, more than a year ago, at his first real competition as a high school player. "I’m almost immune, at this point, to annoying Hinata-types."

"Jerk!" Shouyou said, but with a beaming smile, because that hadn’t been rejection of his spur of the moment idea. It hadn’t been rejection at all, and Shouyou takes that as a victory. Being friends with Kageyama had always been like trying to edge ever closer to a cactus, sharp needles sticking out every which way waiting to poke him if each movement wasn’t careful. "Then go home and get your stuff, and I’ll… clean my room and tell my mom you’ll be over in time for dinner!"

"Don’t just assume I’ve agreed!" Kageyama shouted, but Shouyou was already sprinting ahead, dragging his bike along beside him, his chest inexplicably warm all over again.

Shouyou glanced over his shoulder, almost tripping over his own feet at the hilarious expression on Kageyama’s face. "I’ll see you soon!" He yelled, and whatever Kageyama yelled back at him was lost in the wind.

☃

Kageyama showed up on his doorstep shortly after seven, shivering and carrying the bright blue duffel he dragged along to training camp this summer. His ears were bright pink, and half of his face was covered by a scarf in a bright Karasuno orange.

It was Shouyou’s mom who answered the door, Shouyou hot on her heels. "Tobio, it’s so nice to see you again," she said warmly, and Kageyama’s face went even pinker when she reached out to ruffle his hair. Shouyou could practically see the _I’m too old for this!!_ written in his forehead wrinkles, and he stifled his laugh.

"Thank you for having me," Kageyama said instead, as Shouyou bounced excitedly behind him. "I… um, please pardon my intrusion."

"So polite," Shouyou’s mom teased, taking Kageyama’s bag, and then peeling him out of his winter armor. "I’ll just put this in Shouyou’s room, and Shouyou can take you to wash your hands. We’re having pork curry today, is that all right? Shouyou said he didn’t think you would mind." She winked at Shouyou, and Shouyou winked back.

"No." Kageyama’s forehead wrinkles smoothed out, and he looked up at Shouyou’s mom in surprise, like… Well, Shouyou didn’t know what it was like, but Kageyama had made that face last time he came over, too… Maybe it was like he wasn’t sure what to make of Shouyou’s mom, same as how he hadn’t known what to make of Shouyou, at first, either. "No, I… I like curry, thank you, ma’am."

He wondered what Kageyama’s mom was like. He’d never met her, but maybe she was like Kageyama himself, grumpy and hard to understand and bad at being nice.

"You don’t have to be so formal." Shouyou’s mom smiled, warmly, and Kageyama blushed again. "Shouyou tells me you’ll be staying here until the New Year’s? That’s a long time to call me ma’am, considering it’s only the 22th."

"Only if that’s okay with you." Kageyama said that in a rush. "I wouldn’t want to take advantage of—"

"Nonsense," was his mom’s reply, and she shifted his bag to her other hand. "We always make too many cookies, around here."

Then it was just the two of them in the entryway. Kageyama stepped out of his shoes and up into the house as Shouyou wiggled impatiently. "You took _forever_ to get here!"

"Next time," Kageyama said, looking up at Shouyou through the thick fall of his black hair, "give me the chance to answer before you just decide I’ll go along with it!"

"No way," Shouyou replied. "You’d have figured out some way to say ‘no’ even though you obviously wanted to come!"

"What’s the big deal, if I didn’t come, anyway?" Kageyama’s scowl was a twisty, lemon-bite of an expression that made Shouyou cackle.

"Then I would have missed your face when my mom mussed your hair!" Shouyou gasped it out between laughs.

Kageyama’s hands immediately flew up to fix his hair, looking all constipated again, but this time with the added bonus of embarrassment coloring his face a bright pink.

"I thought were gonna explode, like _boom_ , _gwah_!" He mimed a volcano eruption with his hands, and Kageyama leaned down until their foreheads touched, bumping them together.

"You’re such a dumbass, Hinata," he said, furiously, blue eyes flashing, and Shouyou just kept laughing, even as he noted that Kageyama’s breath smelled like mint toothpaste.

"So polite, _To-bi-o_." The name felt odd on Shouyou’s tongue, and Kageyama clearly thought so too, growling and mashing their foreheads together.

"You little—" His fingers twitched in barely restrained physical reaction, and Shouyou danced away from him, out of retaliation range.

"Time to wash our hands," he said quickly, and Kageyama growled at him again, even as he followed Shouyou to the washroom.

As they stood side by side in front of the mirror, rinsing the soap from their hands, Shouyou noticed, again, how much bigger Kageyama was. Over the past year, he’d only seemed to get taller and broader, while Shouyou himself remained the same old 163 centimeters. He frowned over the unfairness of it all.

Kageyama caught his eyes in the mirror. "Yeah, you’re still short," he said, resting his elbow on Shouyou’s head, in the messy mop of his hair.

"Who said I was thinking about height?!" Shouyou replied, glaring up at Kageyama’s reflection half-heartedly. "I’m _fast_ , anyway—"

"Don’t worry, it’s better this way, from this distance your voice is less irritating—" Kageyama interrupted, grinding his elbow down.

"Oh yeah? Well—"

Natsu rushed in, running between Kageyama’s legs and attaching herself to Shouyou’s right leg, and Shouyou forgot the rest of whatever he was going to say, lifting Natsu up into his arms and hugging her. She was way too big for that now, nearly seven, and he stumbled under her weight.

"Dinner time!" Natsu shouted. "Mommy says it’s time for Shouyou and Tobio to come to the kitchen!"

"Call him Kageyama," complained Shouyou, finding his balance as Natsu nuzzled their cheeks together. She still smelled like baby, to Shouyou, who’d held her so much after she was born that he’d forever associate her with baby powder and soft cotton. "Calling him Tobio is totally weird, Natsu!"

"Tobio and Shouyou, time for dinner!" She jumped down from Shouyou’s arms and ran out of the washroom, laughing the whole way to the kitchen.

" _Seven year olds_ ," Shouyou said, turning off the water and offering Kageyama the hand towel.

Taking it, Kageyama lifted one eyebrow, drying his hands. "I think she acts just like you."

Shouyou squawked, outraged, and Kageyama’s eyes sparkled. Shouyou was relieved to see that the weird, uncertain look that had been lurking around the edges of his eyes and mouth was gone. As they walked out to the kitchen, to help Shouyou’s mom with the plates, Kageyama wasn’t even frowning, anymore.

Over dinner, though, that _look_ returned. When Shouyou’s dad asked Natsu and Shouyou about their days, as usual, and then turned to Kageyama and did the same, Shouyou couldn’t help but see the was Kageyama nervously fussed with the fabric of his pants at the knee, short, blunt nails digging into jersey. Kageyama stumbled over his answers, and Shouyou had to butt in several times to finish a sentence when Kageyama would trail off in that way he did at practice sometimes, half-formed ideas that only Shouyou could predict the rest of.

Shouyou’s dad had just grinned, in that calm, quiet manner of his, and Shouyou’s mom had given them both considering looks as she took another bite of rice, as if the fact that Kageyama was a terrible communicator and Shouyou was his interpreter was _interesting_.

When Shouyou’s parents began talking to each other, Natsu caught between them, he furtively threw a piece of bread at his friend, snickering when Kageyama quietly squeaked.

"What was that for," Kageyama hissed, and Shouyou puffed his cheeks out defiantly.

"Stop acting like an alien," he replied. "Or, well, more of an alien than usual."

"You’re one to talk!" Kageyama shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and extra chair pulled up to the table that sat just a bit lower than the others. (Shouyou’s mom had laughingly told Kageyama it was fine, since he was taller than the rest of them, and Kageyama had blushed, really, actually _blushed_ , and Shouyou was sorely tempted to ask where all Kageyama’s sarcastic height quips had gone.)

"Why are you being so…" he made a sound effect and moved his hands "for anyway? It’s just my parents."

"I’m not being—" He started to imitate the noise, but he stopped mid-attempt, and instead kicked Shouyou under the table. Shouyou made a play for his calf in revenge, but Kageyama shifted his knees pulling just out of reach. His mouth quirked in a smirk, but it fell as quickly as it had appeared. "I just… wasn’t expecting anyone to ask about my day."

"Why wouldn’t he?" Shouyou nibbled on his lower lip, trying to figure out why Kageyama was curling into himself like that. It didn’t make much sense, to Shouyou. His dad was always asking Shouyou stuff, about volleyball or about his classes or about what phone game he should download next. It didn’t seem that big a deal to _Shouyou_ , but Kageyama had his ‘pop-quiz-in-history-class’ face on, and that didn’t make any sense. "It’s just regular dinner conversation."

Pushing his spoon into his curry, Kageyama darted his eyes over to Shouyou before immediately training them back on his food. "I don’t… We don’t even eat dinner at my house, together like this."

"Oh," Shouyou twirled a piece of hair around his finger. "Because your mom works a lot?"

"Yeah," said Kageyama. "And even before, when…" He shrugged, and Shouyou put a hand on his thigh, leaning in curiously.

"Before what?"

"Nothing," Kageyama snapped, quickly, still speaking under his breath. "I’m not used to… the noise, that’s all. It doesn’t matter, so leave it alone."

He was obviously done with the conversation, and Shouyou could _occasionally_ take a hint, no matter what Kenma said about his social awareness being less than zero. So rather than follow up on whatever had crawled up Kageyama’s ass and died, he used his spoon and stole one of Kageyama’s carrots, cracking up at his snarl and savoring his stolen bite.

He looked across the table to check on Natsu. Usually by now, mentioned at least five hundred things she’d thought of that day about clouds, or stuff like that, and asked _at least_ one uncomfortable question, but tonight she was quiet.

She was slouched down in her chair, playing with her food instead of eating it, and her lower lip stuck out so far Shouyou wanted to grab it and pull, just to see if it would make her laugh.

He was about to do it, guest or no guest, but his mom, with her super-mom-senses, which Shouyou was pretty sure were more awesome and powerful than anything the Super Sentai could call on, turned her body to look at him in that exact moment, stopping him in his tracks with his arm extended halfway across the table. He imagined his mom in a Pink Ranger suit and laughed as she fixed him with a semi-stern glare. "If you’re finished," she said, "you can help me take the dishes to the kitchen for washing."

"I can help too!" Natsu said. "Me and Shouyou can do the dishes!"

Shouyou immediately sprung to his feet, used to this chore. Natsu made more of a mess than she cleaned, but it was always more fun with her to help him spray bubbles into the air.

Then he caught a glimpse of Kageyama awkwardly playing with the edge of the tablecloth, and his stomach clenched. Normally, he wouldn’t think anything of leaving a friend to talk with his dad, but who knew what kind of hole Kageyama would dig for himself, if dinner conversation had been any kind of hint. He couldn’t leave Kageyama hanging like that. That would be like missing his toss, which Shouyou never did, on principle.

"Why are you just sitting there?" Shouyou leaned over and pulled at the sleeve of Kageyama’s sweatshirt. "We’ve got dishes to do."

Kageyama looked so relieved, and Shouyou… It wasn’t what Shouyou was used to. Kageyama was always the person getting relied on, while Shouyou was the one doing all the relying. Kageyama was this amazing setter who was tall and fearless and there, with that fierce look in his eyes, whenever Shouyou’s insides got all wobbly or he thought he might chicken out on something. And when Shouyou jumped, Kageyama always sent the ball _right there_ because he was awesome, he was the best, he was _Kageyama_.

So Kageyama looking at him like that made Shouyou’s throat go dry, and his heart beat kinda fast. He felt dizzy with the rush of blood up to his face, so similar to that nervousness that always attacked him before a big match.

He turned away from Kageyama to look at Natsu, who’d already claimed his free hand and was tugging him toward the kitchen. "Woah, Natsu, hold on, we’ve got to get the dishes, first!"

His mom laughs. "Why don’t you help with the napkins, Natsu?"

With Kageyama’s help, it only takes them one trip to clear the table, depositing the dishes on the counter next to the curry crusted pan and the inside bowl of the rice cooker. Kageyama looked a little daunted, but Shouyou just laughed. "We can get this done in no time," he informed him, and Kageyama snorted.

Shouyou turned on the faucet, letting the water run until it was hot before filling the washbowl. He squeezed what was probably too much soap, and the bubbles overflowed, spilling over into the rest of the sink and floating up in the air. Natsu giggled, jumping to try and catch one in the air, and Shouyou’s mom chuckled. "I’ll just leave you to it," she said.

Shouyou pushed up his sleeves. "Has the great Kageyama ever washed dishes before?" He asked, sticking out his tongue, and Kageyama glowered at him.

"Of course I have, dumbass," he said, reaching for the pair of yellow gloves that Shouyou usually wore. He shoved Shouyou leftward, to where the drying rack was. "Just make sure you can do a decent job at drying."

"That’s Natsu’s job," Shouyou says, carding his hand through Natsu’s hair. She grabs at his waist.

"So easy a seven year old can do it," Kageyama said blandly, scrubbing at the top plate with a practiced motion. "So _maybe_ you’ll be able to manage it, then?"

Shouyou bit his lip, looking, considering, at the frothing bubbles of dish soap. After barely a moment of hesitation, he scooped up a big handful of them and extended up onto his tip-toes to smear a mess of soap bubbles across Kageyama’s cheek.

Kageyama turned to him with an unreadable expression, calmly setting the wet, clean, plate on Shouyou’s side of the sink, before he took both hands and plunged them into the soap, scooping a terrifying amount of bubbles and dropping them on Shouyou’s head.

Instinctively, Shouyou shut his eyes to protect them, and sputtered as the taste of curry flavored lemon soap snuck into his mouth. "Kageyama!"

He dragged his arm across his face to clear his eyelids, and then lunged for the bubbles, this time managing to get a solid handful of soap water streaking down from Kageyama’s ear, rolling down his neck and getting into his hair, too. He looked like a drowned cat, and Shouyou had to clutch his stomach, he was laughing so hard.

"Oh, you think it’s funny, do you?" Kageyama growled, and then the battle started in earnest, Shouyou’s laughs turning to wails as Kageyama used his thumb to partially block the faucet, sending a stream of water right at Shouyou, soaking the front of his shirt and sticking it hot and sudsy to his belly.

Then Kageyama laughed, a real one, and Shouyou quit pulling at his gross shirt to stare at him. Water was stuck in his eyelashes, and his face was shiny. Little pockets of soap suds clung to his bangs and dripped down the column of his throat and collected in the right collarbone, the only one revealed by the stretched out neckline of his shirt. His teeth were kinda crooked, Shouyou thought, vaguely, as he watched Kageyama’s flushed face _sparkle_ with amusement. His mouth felt dry, and he felt silly for staring, but Kageyama, all happy like this, made his chest ache.

"What are you making that ridiculous face for?" Kageyama asked, eyes till bright, and Shouyou tore his eyes away, surveying the kitchen instead.

They’d made a real mess, he thought. Not even he and Natsu made messes this big, and Natsu could barely reach the counter even on the stepstool she’d inherited from Shouyou.

Then Shouyou blinked, and looked around again. "Where’s Natsu?" he asked, and Kageyama looked around the kitchen too.

"Maybe she got bored and left?" Kageyama offered, and Shouyou frowned.

That wasn’t very Natsu-like, he thought, and then he sighed. "She probably knew—"

"That I wasn’t going to like this mess?" Shouyou’s mom said pointedly from the doorway, and Shouyou bet his face looked just like Kageyama’s right now, like they’d both gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

His mom had her arms crossed over her chest, and her expression wavered. She didn’t actually look all that mad, Shouyou decided, what with the way she was trying not to laugh.

"We promise… to clean it up?" Shouyou said tentatively, and his mom nodded. "Of course you do. And then you’ll finished the dishes." She looked them both up and down, and lost the battle not to grin. "Then I think you’ll both need to take second showers."

Shouyou rubbed at his hair, and grimaced when it _lathered_. "Ahahaha…ha…"

Kageyama, when Shouyou peeked over at him, looked… absolutely mortified. Shouyou leaned into him, and he flinched, looking down to see Shouyou beaming up at him. He relaxed, then. "I’m sorry about the mess," he said, and Shouyou’s mom shook her head.

"I know my son," she said. "Just mop up and we’ll call it even." She left them, then, and Kageyama exhaled audibly.

"Your mom… is really nice," he mumbled, shifting around to grab a second plate and submerge it in what was left of the soapy water. Shouyou nodded emphatically in agreement, and Kageyama glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. His cheeks were kinda pink. "How come whenever I’m with you, I always end up doing things that are embarrassing?"

"Because when you’re with me, you forget to stop yourself from having fun!" Shouyou replied, and Kageyama seemed surprised at that, his hands stilling momentarily as he thought about it.

"Humph," was all he said in answer, and that, Shouyou was sure, was as close as he would get to acknowledgment that he was right.

They finished the dishes, Kageyama washing and Shouyou drying, and then Shouyou mopped up the floor, humming the song from that anime Noya was watching these days as Kageyama tried to wring his shirt out over the sink, muttering curse words under his breath.

Laughing all over again at how grumpy Kageyama looked, Shouyou put the mop away, leading Kageyama to the bathroom so he could wash up.

"You can use the shower first," he told him. "My mom probably left you out a towel and other stuff, and you can use my shampoo! It says Shouyou on it, but in hiragana, cause we used to do that for my sister to practice reading hiragana and now it’s habit even though she knows my name kanji and—" Shouyou forced himself to stop _babbling_ , it wasn’t like he was actually nervous, this was just Kageyama. "You remember where my room is, right?"

Kageyama had been over once before, last year, when Shouyou had come down with the chicken pox and Kageyama, who’d had them when he was nine or something, had brought over his assignments. They’d ended up practically brawling over Seijou’s starting line-up post third years graduation, Kageyama tickling Shouyou into itchy submission as Shouyou tried to wriggle free and make a run for it, and at the end of all that, neither one of them had gotten _any_ homework done. Kageyama had left before dinner, that time, rumpled and obstinate, and Shouyou had texted him about fifty gifs of angry cats until Kageyama had gotten home and noticed, and texted back _I HATE YOU_ in all-caps English.

"Yeah, I remember, idiot," Kageyama said, rubbing at his soapy bangs. He looked kind of cute, in that dangerous way where Shouyou was gonna maintain about a meter of distance between them until Kageyama was warm and dry and less likely to bite him.

Kageyama opened the bathroom door, and hesitated, looking over his shoulder at Shouyou like he wanted to say something else, but in the end he just nodded and went inside.

Shouyou shook himself, suddenly very aware of just how dish soap sticky he was, and headed toward Natsu’s room. He knocked on the door, and when she didn’t answer, he opened the door a crack. The lights were off, and she was clearly asleep, curled up on the bright yellow blankets that had been Shouyou’s once, hair spread out around her and wearing her favorite bunny pajamas.

Sneaking in, Shouyou carefully pulled her blanket out from underneath her, until he’d gotten it far enough down that he could tuck her under it. She nuzzled into the new warmth, and Shouyou smiled down at her, kissing her forehead. "Goodnight, Natsu," he whispered, and she murmured "’Night, Shouyou," into her pillow, words muffled and eyelids fluttering.

He left her, then, closing the door to her room behind him and walking toward his own. It was cleaner than usual, a wide swath of floor cleared by his bed to make room for a futon, and all his comics shoved out of order onto his bookshelf. 

He pulled a clean pair of underwear and his pajamas out of his dresser, and as he was closing the bottom drawer he heard his door open and close behind him.

He looked up, thinking absently that maybe it was his mom coming to remind him to brush his teeth or something, only to see Kageyama standing there, one of Shouyou’s favorite towels wrapped around his waist, bright lavender and fluffy, his upper body bare completely as he shivered.

It was totally unfair, Shouyou thought, for the second time that evening, that Kageyama had gotten so tall and broad. Shouyou couldn’t help but take in the ways in which Kageyama was different from him, with his long arms and lean muscle and the thin trail of hair on his stomach that led down, and disappeared beneath the towel…

Shouyou’s stomach was suddenly, inexplicably, tied up into knots.

"Forgot to take a change of clothes," Kageyama said, as a drop of water slid down to catch in his belly button, and Shouyou meant to reply, honestly he did, but it came out more as a croak than anything else, and Kageyama tilted his head, confused. "What?"

"Nothing," Shouyou forced out, clutching his pajamas. "I’m… it’s my turn to shower."

"Okay," Kageyama said, putting his blue bag on the edge of Shouyou’s bed and unzipping it, yanking out a pair of underwear carelessly as Shouyou fled from his own room.

In the shower, Shouyou banged his head several times against the wall as hot water pounded into his back, and that helped ease the tangle of his insides.

Shouyou had never really understood why looking at Kageyama sometimes made him feel so _strange_ , but he’d never noticed it happening until they’d started second year.

They’d been practicing, and Kageyama had sent him this new toss—this super, super awesome new toss—and Shouyou had slammed it down the line, right past Noya for a point. Shouyou had turned to grin at Kageyama, to celebrate their new combo, and Kageyama had been looking back, not smiling or anything, just smugly standing there with his eyes all shiny, and Shouyou’s breath had stopped, just stopped, and it was like there wasn’t any air in the whole gym. "Breathe, loser," Kageyama’d said, slapping Shouyou on the back, and Shouyou had gasped for air but his chest had still felt like it was on fire.

After that, Shouyou had kept on noticing it. He thought maybe it was the way that Kageyama had special tosses just for Shouyou now, lots of them, but that didn’t explain the times it happened off the court, when Kageyama was just standing there looking like a jerk drinking milk or hunched over his desk in math class trying to pretend like he wasn’t about to take a nap.

Or, Shouyou admitted, when Kageyama was just standing in Shouyou’s room, looking for a change of clothes.

Kageyama had set up the futon already when Shouyou, clean and dressed in warm pajamas, returned to his room. He was lying on his stomach, back to the door, typing on his phone. His shirt rode up, revealing a slice of back, and Shouyou could see goosebumps there. It _was_ really cold tonight, actually; even colder than it had been on the walk home, and the chill was seeping into the house. Shouyou shuffled over to his bed, running his tongue over clean teeth as he buried himself under his blankets.

From his new vantage point on the bed, he could see now that Kageyama had only partially typed out a text message, his face in its default glower. He looked like he couldn’t decide what to write, tapping in a few words and then backspacing them just as quickly. His hair fell into his eyes, and the corners of his mouth curled downward.

"Who are you texting, anyway?" Shouyou asked, once he had his covers all the way up to his chin.

"My mom," Kageyama answered. "She texted me to wish me a happy birthday, and I’m trying to decide if I want to ask her about her trip." He rolled over onto his back, baring his belly, and he shivered, his body finally telling his brain that it was cold in here, Shouyou figured.

Then Kageyama’s words sunk in, and he sat up straight in bed. "Wait! It’s your birthday?!"

Kageyama rolled his eyes. "Yeah," he said. "Should you be yelling this late at night?"

"I didn’t know it was your birthday!!"

"Obviously," Kageyama replied. "I didn’t tell you."

"Why didn’t we celebrate it last year?!" Shouyou leaned over the bed now, so that Kageyama would be sure to see his accusing glare. "How could you keep this a secret?!"

"We had vacation starting from the 21st last year." Kageyama pulled one of the blankets up around him like armor. "It’s not a big deal."

"You’re, like, _seventeen_ now!" Shouyou gaped at him. "If I’d known it was your birthday, we could have gotten a cake!" He scrunched up his face. "Why’d your mom go on vacation during your _birthday_?"

"Why are you being so loud?" Kageyama put his phone up to his face again, but Shouyou could see he was uncomfortable, lips thin from being pressed together in consternation. "Don’t worry about it, Hinata."

They’d celebrated Shouyou’s birthday as a team. Daichi and Suga and Asahi and Kiyoko had all come out, too, that Saturday, and they’d eaten curry bread together and played volleyball outside at the park, casual games that had resulted in Shouyou walking home with grass stains on his knees and a smile on his face so wide it hurt.

Shouyou scrambled onto his knees. "Kageyama," he said seriously, and at the tone of his voice, Kageyama set his phone down on his chest. "In honor of your birthday, we’re going to have the best winter vacation ever."

Kageyama’s eyes went wide, and he flushed, his whole face going so pink it was almost red, and he quickly turned away. "You’re such a dumbass," he grumbled. "It was already going to be fun, wasn’t it?"

"Now it’s going to be _triple fun_ ," Shouyou vowed, thoughts racing. "Geez, I have to make up for _two birthdays_."

"It’s already…" Kageyama still wasn’t looking at him. "It’s enough that you invited me, all right? Don’t make it weird."

Shouyou licked his lips at the sincerity in Kageyama’s voice, and he wasn’t sure what to say. He thought this might be another one of those cactus moments, and he wasn’t sure where the spines were. "R-right," he said, unsure, and Kageyama tossed his phone aside to land on top of his bag.

"Let’s go to sleep," he said, and Shouyou slid out of bed to turn off the lights.

Shouyou didn’t fall asleep immediately. It was too cold to sleep, maybe, and outside, he could hear the wind howling, making the branches on the trees out back rub together and make these creepy whispering sounds.

He wiggled closer to the edge of the bed so that he could peer down at Kageyama. His friend had his knees pulled up to his chest, and he was still shivering, as cold as Shouyou was, probably. Shouyou sucked his lower lip into his mouth, toying with it between his teeth, before he decided. "Hey, Kageyama?"

"What?" Kageyama whispered back.

"If you’re cold," he said uncertainly, "you could sleep with me?" Kageyama didn’t reply, so Shouyou barreled on. "I mean, it would be warmer if we just but all the blankets on the bed and huddled for warmth like on one of those survivor shows, like the ones where those guys go out and try to find wild bears and try not to get eaten and there’s lots of ice and stuff—"

"Shut up," Kageyama interrupted. "I’m not cold."

"I am," Shouyou said, plaintively. "And you sure _look_ cold."

"You can’t even see me in the dark," Kageyama grumbled, but then he sat up, gathering his blankets in his arms and rising from the futon. He stood uncertainly next to Shouyou’s bed for a few seconds, then he spread the blankets out on top of Shouyou’s, before slipping under the covers Shouyou had lifted invitingly.

Kageyama’s toes were cold, and Shouyou whined unhappily. "No way you weren’t cold!" he whisper-yelled. "Your feet feel like blocks of ice."

It was warmer like this, though. Shouyou could feel the chill melting away as Kageyama warmed up under the blankets, and he shifted the tiniest bit closer to that new heat source. Kageyama just grunted, but he didn’t pull away. Shouyou stifled a grin as he looked at him.

Actually, this close, Shouyou could see each individual lash fanning out above Kageyama’s closed eyes, and it was strange, how Shouyou’s blood seemed to all be rushing to his head. It made him sorta dizzy, actually, and he closed his eyes, too, to see if it helped make the feeling fade. It did.

"Hinata?" Kageyama whispered, after Shouyou had thought he’d fallen asleep.

"Yeah?" It was raspy, as he’d been on the edge of dozing off himself.

"Thanks," Kageyama said, and at the roughness of his voice, Shouyou bit back a smile, and curled up on his side to fight the tickle of pleasure in his stomach that threatened to turn him pink.

Taking a chance, Shouyou said: "What are friends for?" Shouyou’s words were muffled by his pillow, and he wasn’t sure if Kageyama would even hear them.

"I’m still trying to figure that out," replied Kageyama. "But I’m starting to get a better idea."

Shouyou fell asleep that night with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, and dreamed about playing volleyball, closing his eyes to spike every toss Kageyama sent him, trusting that the ball would be waiting when he swung.

☃

Shouyou woke up surrounded in warmth. There was something heavy pinning him down to the bed, and he groaned, trying to turn onto his back. "It’s too early, Natsu," he said groggily. "Go back to your own bed."

But the weight didn’t budge, and as his eyes fluttered, the warmth behind him moves, slightly, just enough that something bristly scratches his forehead..

With a yawn, Shouyou opened his left eye to see what was going on. There was an arm across his waist; a long arm, with fine black hairs along pale skin, and Shouyou swallowed, remembering, all of a sudden, who was in his bed.

Kageyama sighed, and even in sleep, he was kinda impatient, pulling Shouyou in tighter when he tried to move, and pressing his cheek in closer to Shouyou’s forehead, and it was _stubble_ tickling the skin there, Shouyou realized.

He still couldn’t believe Kageyama had to shave.

As he woke up more fully, Shouyou became aware of just how close Kageyama was, their legs tangled together and Kageyama’s every breath sending puffs of warm air along Shouyou’s scalp. One of Shouyou’s hands was tangled up in the fabric of Kageyama’s pajama top, which was a practice tee from his old middle school volleyball team, and beneath his knuckles was the slow, rhythmic beat of Kageyama’s heart.

It was surprisingly comfortable, and that, more than anything else about the situation, had Shouyou’s gut churning unpredictably, somewhere between anxious and excited, as he opened his eyes completely so he could try to free himself.

He loosened his hold on Kageyama’s shirt, and straightened out his knees, dragging one from between Kageyama’s. Then he attempted to scoot backwards, and Kageyama groaned, his hand spreading wide across the small of Shouyou’s back and pulling him in even closer.

"Kageyama?" Shouyou asked, not loudly, but voiced enough that it would have woken him up if they were at training camp on futon’s next to each other.

Shouyou felt the exact moment Kageyama woke up. His whole body stiffened, muscles bunching up, the hand on Shouyou’s back twitching as if unsure where to move, and Kageyama’s even breaths briefly stuttering.

"Good morning," Shouyou said, and Kageyama shivered, before his whole body forcibly relaxed again.

"Morning," he rumbled, and when he spoke, the sparse growth of hair on his face brushed Shouyou’s forehead again.

"Your face is almost as much of a cactus as you are, you know that?" Shouyou muttered, and _finally_ , Kageyama moved away, sliding far enough away that Shouyou could roll completely onto his back. Now he could see Kageyama’s face, flushed with sleep and eyelids heavy, and maybe Shouyou had been wrong about Kageyama being completely awake. "Doesn’t hurt, just tickles."

"Oh," Kageyama said lazily, nuzzling into Shouyou’s pillow, which he’d somehow acquired during the night, "sorry."

"It’s not fair," Shouyou said, staring down at Kageyama’s arm, still lying on his stomach. Shouyou was tempted to poke it, to see if Kageyama even realized that the warm thing his arm was draped on top of was Shouyou’s stomach. He probably didn’t; otherwise, Shouyou decided, he would have moved it. "Why do you get to be tall and strong and bearded and I have to stay so _small_."

He lolled his head to the side, so he can glare at Kageyama, and he’s surprised to see Kageyama looking back at him, eyebrows furrowed together like he’s trying to figure something out. He was looking more awake, now, and his eyes were all the way open. The corners of his lips were white, and his lips were chapped, and wow, Shouyou thought, looking at the mess of Kageyama’s hair and the imprints in his cheek from the wrinkles of Shouyou’s pillowcase, Kageyama _was_ good looking, maybe. He’d addss that to the list of things that were unfair.

"There’s—" Kageyama started to say, but then Shouyou’s door burst open, and Kageyama sat up immediately, putting as much space between himself and Shouyou as possible as Natsu rushed into the room, jumping up on the bed in a single leap before crawling up to sit just above Shouyou’s knees.

"Shouyou, you’ve been asleep forever!" Natsu complained, looking at him accusingly. "Mommy says we have to start _cleaning_ today." Shouyou winced at the emphasis on the word, knowing that meant they’d have to help their dad drag everything out of storage to see what could be thrown away before the New Year, to avoid any bad luck from the previous year sticking around.

A lot of the time, they’d find unusual things hidden away in there, though. One year, they’d found a model train set Shouyou had gotten for his birthday and had forgotten to put together, and for the next four days the train had run through the house, making whistling noises and surprising Natsu every single time.

 

"I know, I know," Shouyou said, pulling on one of Natsu’s pigtails. She smiled at him, leaning forward to peck his nose. "Give us a chance to change and we’ll be out for breakfast."

Natsu slanted her eyes over at Kageyama, and frowned, before looking back at Shouyou. "Hurry up!" She maneuvered herself off the bed, jumping down and running out the door. Shouyou heard her socked feet sliding down the hardwood floors, and he crossed his fingers she wouldn’t slip and fall.

"Does Natsu like volleyball?" Kageyama asked, and Shouyou gave him a puzzled look as he pushed the covers down far enough to slide out of bed.

The soles of his feet met warmth, which meant his mom had turned the floor heating up. "I dunno yet," Shouyou answered. "Why?"

"The way she jumps," said Kageyama, blank-faced. "It reminds me of you." He tilted his head to the side. "And you’re about the same size, so…"

"Jerk," Shouyou said, grabbing a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt from his drawer. He was about to stomp off to the bathroom to change when his phone beeped, signaling a text message. Kageyama’s vibrated right afterwards. Shouyou picked his phone up off the desk. "It’s from Noya, so we probably just got the same message."

"What’s it say?"

"Team is going ice-skating this afternoon, around four," Shouyou replied. "Apparently we missed an entire e-mail chain about it last night. " Shouyou thought about it. They’d definitely be finished cleaning for the day by then. "You wanna go?" Another text made their phones go off, and it was a follow-up from Tanaka informing them that Asahi was coming, along with Daichi and Suga. "The third years are coming." Shouyou blinked. "The old third years. The third years who are older than third years, I mean!"

"I knew what you meant." Kageyama blew his bangs out of his eyes. "Yeah, we can go, if you feel like it." He was glaring at the floor instead of looking at Shouyou, and Shouyou grinned, because that was Kageyama-speak for _I really want to go._

"I bet I can get ready faster than you can!" Shouyou said, after he replied to Noya, and Kageyama’s gaze lifted from the floor to pin on Shouyou.

"In your dreams," he replied, and they lunged for the door at the same time.

After what Shouyou would consider a tame battle for bathroom rights, and a quick breakfast of rice and fish, the house cleaning began, bringing with it an influx of noise and dust and laughter.

Shouyou’s dad had gotten a head start on the storage room, pulling boxes out and yelling across the hall to the kitchen with anecdotes as Shouyou and Kageyama sorted Christmas ornaments on the kitchen table.

"How does this much stuff find its way in here in _one year_?" His dad asked, and Shouyou’s mom, who was stirring something that smelled delicious on the stove for lunch, just chuckled in reply.

Kageyama just looked bewildered at the flurry of activity. "Don’t you clean out your house at New Year’s?"

"Not really," Kageyama replied. "My mom isn’t very superstitious. Back when my dad lived with us, we’d do it, but it was…" Kageyama shrugged. Shouyou looked at his face more carefully, trying to decipher his expression. "Quiet," he finished. "Not… so noisy, or cheerful." His eyelids shuttered, coming down like blinds over his eyes and hiding his thoughts from Shouyou’s attempts at reading them. He held up a clear glass ball with fake snow inside, and shook it, sending the snow tumbling around inside like a blizzard. "Don’t you have too many ornaments for that little thing?" He gestured in the direction of the small plastic tree in the corner of the living room, currently blocked from sight be the kitchen wall.

"There’s no such thing as too many ornaments," Shouyou said, seriously, and Kageyama arched one eyebrow incredulously.

Natsu kept running back and forth between the kitchen and the hall, bringing empty boxes to the trash and looking longingly at the table where they were sorting every time she came in. "Can I help you, Shouyou?" She asked, eventually, and Shouyou grinned down at her.

"Kageyama and I have got this, Natsu! Make sure you keep helping Dad throw boxes away, okay?"

Natsu suddenly scowled at him, and threw the empty box in her hand at his leg. It hit and bounced off. "Why don’t you make _Tobio_ help Daddy?" Her lower lip trembled and she ran out of the kitchen, running into her room and slamming the door.

Shouyou stared at the spot where Natsu had been, and at the empty box. "Wha?"

Kageyama looked equally confused, when Shouyou looked over at him, and Shouyou’s mom sighed, wiping her hands on her apron.

"If you’ve got those sorted," she said, "we’ve got the rest of the decorations in the living room to unpack."

Shouyou, uneasy, nodded, and he and Kageyama moved to follow his mom out of the kitchen. His dad huffed past them, carrying a big box of what looked like cigar magazines, and took them outside.

Inside the first box Shouyou opened, he found his and Natsu’s matching reindeer antlers, that they’d gotten at Tokyo Disney last year. He frowned at them, then looked back at Natsu’s door.

"Why is she acting like this?" Shouyou asked his mom softly, when Kageyama excused himself to go to the bathroom. He pulled a really ugly Santa figurine out of the box and set it down on the floor, then wiped his hands on his thighs, leaving behind dusty streaks.

"I think she’s jealous," his mom said.

"Jealous?" He looked over at Natsu’s closed door again. He could still hear the echo of the slam. "I don’t get it."

Shouyou’s mom smiled at him softly, throwing an arm around his shoulders and pulling him in close. "She’s just not used to sharing your attention," she answered. "Usually during winter vacation, it’s just the two of you, and she’s the only person you really play with. But with Tobio here, she has to share, and she’s only seven, Shouyou; it’s not easy for her to suddenly be number two with you."

"I’m not trying to ignore her or anything," Shouyou exclaimed, looking up at her. "She’s not number two, or anything like that! It’s just that I’ve got to explain stuff to Kageyama, because he’s not used to doing vacation like this, so—"

"I know that," his mom said easily, fondly untangling a string of lights. "But for Natsu, Tobio is this person that came along and stole you away from her."

"As if," Shouyou replied, blushing for reasons he couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Something about the way his mom had said that had made his stomach do the knot-thing again, and now he was thinking about how warm Kageyama had felt this morning, wrapped up close, and how he had looked, laughing and smiley with soap suds in his hair. He swallowed.

"It’ll be fine," his mom reassured him. "I’ll talk to her later, when you and Tobio are out with your teammates."

"Thank you," Shouyou said, grinning up at his mom and pulling out of her embrace as Kageyama reemerged from the bathroom. "Oi, Kageyama, help me get these last two boxes!"

"It’s so nice of you to help, Tobio," Shouyou’s mom said, rising up to go back into the kitchen and check on lunch. "Shouyou can’t carry nearly as many boxes at once."

" _Mom_ ," Shouyou wailed, and Kageyama smirked at him and rested his elbow on top of Shouyou’s head until Shouyou poked him in the side with all four fingers of his left hand, right in the ribs where he was ticklish.

☃

They met the old team at an ice rink about forty minutes away from Shouyou’s house. They saw Tsukishima and Asahi first, standing a head above everyone else. It was Noya they _heard_ first, though, energetically telling Asahi to stop looking so nervous about ice skating, since Noya’d be sure to catch him if he fell.

Suga was dressed in a hat with a bear on it, the ear flaps pulled down to cover his ears, and his smile was wide as he waved at Shouyou.

"Our other two first years," he cooed, happily continuing to wiggle his mittened hands.

Tsukishima frowned, pushing his glasses up. They were slightly fogged by his breath, which made him less intimidating that usual. "Hinata might still _look_ like a first year, but give the rest of us a break."

"You’ll always be first years to us," Daichi said, and Shouyou smiled up at him. "Upperclassmen privilege."

"Huh," Kageyama said, crossing his arms, and Ennoshita winked at Shouyou as Kageyama’s frown deepened to match Tsukishima’s.

"Ah, just like old times," Asahi said, smiling sheepishly. "It feels like hardly any time has passed since we graduated."

"It’s good to see you guys again," Yachi said, her arm linked with Kiyoko’s. They both wore big fluffy scarves that obscured the bottom of their faces. Shouyou was a little jealous, because he was starting to get cold himself.

"We should meet for New Year’s, too!" Noya exclaimed, doing tiny circle spins on his skates as Shouyou clapped, impressed as usual by Noya’s athleticism. "What shrine does your family go to for Hatsumode?"

"We can try to visit three temples each!" Tanaka said. "I will use my New Year’s wish in all three places to ask for Kiyoko to ignore me like she used to!" He wiped a tear from his eye.

"What an admirable goal," Noya said, as Daichi rubbed at his temples.

"More admirable would be wishing to pass his university exams," said Tsukishima, and Suga patted Kiyoko consolingly on the shoulder.

They rented skates, and sat down on the benches in front of the rink. Shouyou looked at his with trepidation. The blades looked too thin for someone to actually move on them.

"Are you sure this is safe?" He whispered to Kageyama, but when everyone around him turned to look, he realized it might not actually have been a whisper.

Kageyama’s nose scrunched. "You don’t know how to ice skate?"

"Well, I _sort of_ do!" Shouyou tried in vain to undo the tangled laces on his rented skates. "I mean, I watched figure skating during the Olympics?"

Kageyama and Tsukishima snorted in unison, then glared at each other. Kageyama gave up first, squatting down in front of Shouyou and batting his hands away to untangle the laces himself. Shouyou looked at Kageyama’s dark hair in surprise as Suga winked at him in a way that made Shouyou feel like he was missing something.

When he was finished, Kageyama straightened, and then held out a hand to Shouyou. "I guess I can show you," he mumbled, looking out at the rink until Shouyou had accepted his hand, knees already wobbling.

"Good luck with that," Tsukishima said, looking back and forth between them curiously, gaze eventually settling on their clasped hands.

"You can do it, Hinata!" Yachi added, with two thumbs up as she preceded them onto the ice, smoothly starting a loop of the rink with Yamaguchi right behind her.

"This is because of, you know, all the winter vacation stuff." He grabbed Shouyou’s hands, and pulled him out onto the ice.

For a while, Shouyou thought he just might survive the experience. Kageyama was surprisingly patient, letting Shouyou cling to the wall as they made slow circles.

"If you fall and break something," Kageyama told him, "and you can’t play volleyball, I won’t forgive you."

"Ha! This isn’t so bad!" Shouyou yelled, on the fifth turn around the rink, and then he wobbled, eyes going wide as he lost his balance. Kageyama lunged forward, grabbing his wrist, and his other hand settled on Shouyou’s waist, keeping him upright. Shouyou took a relieved breath, shuddery and quick, and then looked up to thank Kageyama for saving his tailbone, and Kageyama was _close_ , staring down at Shouyou with this look in his eyes that made Shouyou forget all about being cold or almost falling.

There were snowflakes in his hair, and his cheeks were pink froorm the cold, and his lips were slightly parted, and Shouyou should have looked away but he couldn’t seem to do it, caught up by how nice Kageyama’s face was, when he wasn’t scowling, and how warm his hands were, even through the thick material of Shouyou’s puffy coat.

Then Kageyama licked his lips, his gaze dropping down, to Shouyou’s mouth, before immediately flicking back up to his eyes, and Shouyou’s pulse hammered in his ears, confusing mixing with something… something else, that seemed trapped in his lungs and wanted out.

"Are you okay, Hinata?" Suga called, and the moment shattered. Kageyama pulled away like he’d been burned, and Shouyou gasped for air, able to breathe again now that Kageyama wasn’t doing… whatever he’d been doing, with his eyes and his hands.

Skating over to the edge of the rink so that he could grab the wall with one hand, he waved at Suga and Daichi with the other. "Just fine!" He called out cheerfully.

Kageyama, when he looked back over, had skated over to Yachi, and they glided smoothly across the ice. Yachi didn’t stumble and trip like Shouyou did. It looked nice, them skating together. Shouyou didn’t know why that thought stung like lemon juice at the back of his throat.

"Did Kageyama get frustrated with you?" Suga asked, linking an arm through Shouyou’s as Noya came up on the other side and did the same.

"We’ll take over your skating lessons from here," Noya added, as Daichi and Ennoshita left the rink in search of tea. "Let _senpai_ show you the ropes!"

Shouyou grinned at them both in turn, his heartbeat slowly returning to normal, and let them pull him back out onto the ice.

So then Noya taught him how to skate backwards, and Suga taught him how to stop, and between them and Tsukishima’s helpful advice disguised as insults, Shouyou managed to avoid any truly terrible falls.

Shouyou’s stomach hurt from laughing so much, and from drinking so much hot chocolate with Tanaka, probably.

But after they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways, it was just Shouyou and Kageyama again, and the air felt… weird between them. Shouyou wanted to ask Kageyama about what he’d been thinking, when he’d looked at Shouyou on the ice rink, but Shouyou wasn’t sure how to ask, or even if he _should_ ask.

Because whatever it was had changed something, and now Kageyama wasn’t looking at him or talking to him, and Shouyou wasn’t looking at or talking to Kageyama, either, overcome with something like embarrassment whenever he peeked up at him out of the corner of his eye. Kageyama had licked his lips, and Shouyou had wanted…

He didn’t know. 

What he did know was that now things were _wrong_ , and hadn’t he promise Kageyama the best winter holiday ever?

When they got home, Shouyou stopped Kageyama outside the front door. Tugging on the hood of his coat, he guided Kageyama around to the side of the house, where there were a pile of volleyballs and a good angle to hit them into the back yard.

"What are you doing?" Kageyama said, frown so deep it looked like it had been carved into his face with a hammer and chisel. "It’s cold."

"Hey," Shouyou said. "Toss to me."

"What?"

"Toss to me!" Shouyou repeated, releasing Kageyama’s hood and passing him a volleyball.

Kageyama just… stared at him, and then the harsh lines of his face softened, and he offered Shouyou this tiny, barely-there grin that Shouyou had never seen before. Shouyou gulped, and then pulled off his gloves, watching Kageyama do the same. "It’s a bad idea to do this in the winter," Kageyama grumbled, and Shouyou grinned lopsidedly at him.

"Just a few," he pleaded, and Kageyama rolled his eyes before sending a toss Shouyou’s way.

"I should be making you receive," Kageyama said, as Shouyou leaped for the spike. "You still blow at receiving."

The ball hit exactly at the center of Shouyou’s palm, and the spike landed exactly where Shouyou wanted it to. When Shouyou looked over to Kageyama, he was staring at the ball, watching it roll through the frozen grass and come to a stop a meter from where it had landed.

"Kageyama, your tosses are the best," Shouyou said, and Kageyama grinned at him, and maybe things weren’t so wrong, after all.

Natsu was quiet at dinner, picking at her food and glowering at Shouyou, even when he smiled at her across the table. Kageyama had an easier time, talking to Shouyou’s dad on his second try, fielding questions about their upperclassmen without much help from Shouyou at all. Shouyou took advantage of that to ask Natsu more about her afternoon, and by the end of dinner, she was smiling at him again, and Shouyou’s mom gave him an approving look as she ushered him into the living room to help decorate the tree. "I’ll get the dishes tonight," she said. "Wouldn’t want to have to mop again."

Shouyou laughed, and attempted to drag Kageyama out with him to the living room. Kageyama avoided the touch, though, and Shouyou forced himself not to frown.

Kageyama chose not to help decorate the tree, opting to sit in one of the armchairs with a cup of tea, as Natsu and Shouyou divided ornament duty between left half and right half. Shouyou’s dad helped Natsu with her side, because she always left too many gaps on her own, clustering too many ornaments in one spot and saving none for anywhere else.

Then it was time to string up the lights, and Shouyou refused to let Kageyama watch. "You’re tall enough that we won’t need the stepladder," Shouyou argued. "Taller than Dad, even!"

At that, Natsu gave Kageyama a contemplative look, like she’d abruptly discovered a _use_ for him, and Shouyou hid a grin.

They hung the lights everywhere in the living room, checking the power with each new string in honor of that year when there’d been one dead bulb and it had taken them hours to figure out where it was.

Kageyama trailed after Shouyou, taking the lights from him to attach them in higher places and handing the string back. Every time, he carefully avoided touching Shouyou, never once letting their fingers brush or letting Shouyou move in too close to him.

Shouyou, who had always been used to sharing space with Kageyama, always used to Kageyama’s long limbs winding into his space or leaning into Kageyama’s strong side, felt abruptly abandoned, almost, like even though Kageyama was right there, he wasn’t, that who inexplicable _moment_ standing between them like some big, hungry, ghost elephant, making it impossible for Shouyou to close the sudden distance.

Still, Shouyou hung lights, and didn’t ask Kageyama about it, because Kageyama was smiling, and Shouyou didn’t want to ruin that.

After all was said and done, Kageyama looked over the living room with a muted horror that made Shouyou kinda proud. "Somehow," he said faintly, when everyone else was out of earshot, "I’m totally unsurprised that your family overdoes stuff like this."

"It’s only overdone if you don’t enjoy it!" Shouyou purposefully leaned into Kageyama, and Kageyama froze, and Shouyou watched him, trying to figure out what Kageyama was thinking. His face had gone still, like a statue. Then he pulled away from Shouyou, just an unnoticeable-to-anyone-but-Shouyou step to the right, and Shouyou was cold, without that arm there to spread warmth through him.. "I have to go read to Natsu before bed," Shouyou said quickly, stepping away from Kageyama.

Kageyama nodded, and let Shouyou’s mom drag him into the kitchen for another cup of tea and help her pick out which figurines should go on all the tables.

After he read to Natsu, watching her fall asleep with a contented expression on her face, small hands fisted in Shouyou’s sweatshirt and chest rising and falling in a slow even motion, he escaped to the shower, the hot water finally melting away the ice of the evening, and the chill that hadn’t left his fingers since he’d pulled off his gloves to hit spikes.

Warm and relaxed, he traded Kageyama for the bathroom, getting into bed and checking his phone to see if Kenma had responded to the flurry of photos he’d sent him of his family’s Christmas decorations. Kenma’s family didn’t do Christmas, apparently, and he’d mentioned offhand a few weeks ago when they were chatting online that he was afraid to know what Shouyou meant when he said "so bright it’s scary" with regards to their usual living room decorations.

Kenma’s reply was a emoticon of a head with an arrow through it, and Shouyou chuckled quietly to himself.

When Kageyama came into the room, dressed in his middle school volleyball shirt again, ready for sleep, Shouyou just watched him as he unfolded the futon, spreading out his blankets before walking back over to turn out the light. The floor creaked as Kageyama crawled into his makeshift bed, and Shouyou thought itf felt even colder tonight than it had last night.

But whatever had happened between them at the ice rink made Shouyou think it was better, if they had this little bit of space between them. His heart still felt like it was in his throat, and whenever he thought back to the way Kageyama had looked at him, one hand wrapped around Shouyou’s wrist and the other firm on his hip, he panicked.

"Goodnight, Kageyama," Shouyou murmured, and then he turned onto his side, so that he couldn’t see Kageyama at all, and went to sleep.

☃

"Do you really need all these?" Kageyama asked, picking up a blue reindeer shaped cookie cutter.

"Yes," Shouyou replied. "We have to make Santa's whole village! It’s tradition." 

"Right," Kageyama said. "Silly me."

Shouyou laughed.

They had finished all of the other cookies already, baking all day with his mom, and all that were left were Natsu’s favorite, the sugar cookies shaped in various Christmas designs. It was getting late, too, past nine in the evening, and Natsu was starting to get a little cranky, sleepy and impatient. Shouyou was tired too, but they always saved the best for last.

After they’d painstakingly punched out the shapes and put them in the oven, Shouyou’s mom excused herself to go help Shouyou’s dad with the laundry. "I’m sure you guys can take it from here," she said, and Kageyama nodded while Natsu and Shouyou gave identical thumbs up.

When the cookies came out of the oven, a beautiful tan color, Shouyou grabbed the various icings and chocolate chips and sprinkles over to the kitchen table, setting them in front of Natsu.

"Now what?" Kageyama said, picking up one of the containers of red sprinkles, looking incredulously between them and the freshly baked Santas.

"We have to make them look like Santa," Shouyou replied, rolling his eyes. "Even you have to know that Santa’s coat is red." Shouyou tapped the container in Kageyama’s hand, careful not to make contact with any part of Kageyama, lest he flinch away and Shouyou’s heart shrivel up miserably. "So put red icing on—"

"And then add red sprinkles," Kageyama finishes. "Sounds easy."

Natsu snatched the container of sprinkles out of Kageyama's hand, glaring up at Shouyou. "It's my job!"

"Okay," Shouyou said. "Then I'll teach Kageyama how to decorate the reindeer, instead." He reached for the chocolate icing.

She took the icing off the table, then, holding both containers to her chest. "That's my job, too!"

"Natsu, what are you doing?" Shouyou asked, patience wearing thin.

"You're messing everything up, Shouyou!"

"I'm not!" he replied. "There's three of us, so of course we have to spread the jobs out differently!"

"I can go work on our winter assignments or something," Kageyama said, eyes fixed on the door."

"No!" Shouyou put his hands on his hips. "i promised you the whole experience, and cookies is a part of that!" He glared down at Natsu. "If Natsu would quit whining!"

"I don't want to make cookies with Tobio! i want to make them with _Shouyou_!"

"Natsu, stop acting like a baby!" Shouyou snapped, and something boiled in his belly; he wasn’t sure if it was anger or guilt or something else completely, but he suddenly didn’t want to look at the cookies or Natsu or anything Christmas at all anymore.

" _Fine!_ ," Natsu yelled, dropping the sprinkles and scattering them across the floor in a red and green mess, the icing rolling under the table. She wiped her arm across her eyes, and then, for the second time in three days, she ran from the kitchen to her room, and slammed the door.

"Ugh!" Shouyou shoved the tray of cookies away from himself, and stomped into his own room, belly flopping onto his bed.

He hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights, but it didn’t matter, really, as frustrated, Shouyou smooshed his face into his pillow.

"I know if I was used to having all your attention," Kageyama said, a few minutes later, walking into the room and closing the door softly behind him, "I wouldn’t want to share it."

"What’s that supposed to mean?" 

"Imagine next year we got a spiker who was as fast as you, and I suddenly started tossing to him more often."

"Then I'd train until I was so fast you wouldn’t even _want_ to toss to someone else!" 

"I'd still toss to you, though," said Kageyama, sprawling out on the futon. Shouyou peeked at him over a folded arm. He couldn’t make him out too well in the dark. "But only half the time. Those other times, I'd be tossing to that first year, trying to get him settled on the team."

"But... I want all of Kageyama's tosses!" Shouyou scowled. "What if you end up liking the new person better?!"

"So even if I was being fair, you’d still feel slighted, if I didn’t give you all of my tosses?" Kageyama rolled over onto his side, scratching at his stomach.

"Well… yeah," Shouyou said, curving his body around his pillow under the blankets. "It’s okay when you toss to Tanaka or Tsukishima, or anyone, because I know your best tosses come to me, and that sometimes I have to be the decoy. But…" He closed his eyes. "But I don’t want anyone to be to you what I am to you."

"Then you and Natsu aren’t so different, are you?" Kageyama's lips twitched.

"Are you calling me seven again?" Shouyou asked suspiciously, and Kageyama shook his head.

"No," he replied. "I’m just saying that Natsu thinks of you the same way you think about my tosses."

"But i would never stop tossing to Natsu!" Shouyou grimaced. "Or--you _know_ what i mean!"

"And I wouldn't stop tossing to you, either, idiot." Kageyama pulled the neck of his sweatshirt up to hide his face. "Doesn't mean you wouldn't worry about it." He plucked at his blankets.

"Natsu is my sister!" Shouyou was scandalized. "Why would she worry about something silly like that?"

"She idolizes you," Kageyama said. "You know that, right?"

"When she was born, my whole life changed." Shouyou flopped onto his back. "My mom told me, you’re older than she is, so you have to protect her until she can do it herself, and i… I’d never been big enough or strong enough to protect anyone, before."

Kageyama snorted, and Shouyou tossed him a glare, grabbing a fistful of his sheets and balling them up in his hand. Then he swallowed, gathering his thoughts.

"I was always the smallest kid in the class, and not very… smart, mostly, and in my free time I played volleyball with aunties, so…" Shouyou laughed, feeling his eyes getting wet, and embarrassed, he wiped them away. "But Natsu always thought I was cool. She’s always liked me, even though I couldn’t say anything in English and I didn’t play soccer and I wasn’t tall." She’d written, in first grade, that she wanted to be like Shouyou when she grew up, and her teacher had told her she was supposed to pick someone who was actually grown up And actually, I think she’s pretty cool, too. She likes martial arts, you know? And one day, she’s gonna protect me." He wiped again at his eyes, hoping it was dark enough that Kageyama couldn’t see him. "Now _I’m_ being a baby."

"Kind of," Kageyama said. "But it’s okay, I’m used to you."

"I thought it would be really fun," Shouyou continued, "to spend Christmas with you _and_ Natsu. I didn’t expect it to be weird."

"I can go home," said Kageyama. "If it would make things easier."

"I don’t want you to go home!" Shouyou sat up in bed. "I promised you a good winter vacation!" He tugged at his blankets, squirming under them.

"It’s not like I’m not used to being at home by myself," said Kageyama. "I know your sister is important to you, Hinata, and I know you only invited me—"

"You’re _both_ important to me," Shouyou interrupted, looking down at Kageyama with consternation. "You’re awesome, Kageyama, and there’s no way Natsu won’t like you if she gets to know you."

"I’m important to you?" Kageyama had a funny look on his face. It sort of reminded Shouyou of the first time Kageyama realized that he closed his eyes to hit his tosses.

"Yeah, _obviously_ ," replied Shouyou.

"Don’t say it like I’m just supposed to know!"

"You’re my best friend," Shouyou said, offering Kageyama the best smile he could summon, and this time, he hoped Kageyama _could_ make it out in the dark. "I’m yours, too, you’re just bad at that kind of thing."

"Oh, and you’re great at it, right?" Shouyou couldn’t see Kageyama’s eyes, but he could hear the amusement in Kageyama’s voice.

"No," answered Shouyou. "But I think this is the one situation where it doesn’t take much to be better than you." He tried to imitate Tsukishima at the end, but I was a spectacular failure, and Kageyama snorted derisively. "You try it, then!"

"As if." He could hear the blankets rustling, and Shouyou smiled. Kageyama hadn’t denied that Shouyou was his best friend. That felt like his biggest victory yet, and suddenly, he wanted to see Kageyama’s face, and feel Kageyama all long and self-assured next to him, so Shouyou might be able soak up a little of his strength.

"If…" he began, then he hesitated. "If you’re cold, you could always come up here." It wasn’t cold. Shouyou’s mom had left the heating higher, and Shouyou was comfortable even with only one of his thick blankets unfolded. Somehow, it felt like the only way he could ask Kageyama to come closer, especially considering how hesitant he was to touch Shouyou since the odd moment they’d stumbled into at the ice rink. 

There was no movement from the futon, and Shouyou sighed, his smile fading slightly as he rolled over onto his side, facing away from Kageyama.

It wasn’t that it was a big deal that Kageyama didn’t want to touch him. Only, Shouyou wasn’t terrific at lying to himself, and it really _was_ , because Kageyama was warm, and Shouyou kinda liked the casual touches that let him know he was one of the few people Kageyama allowed to get close.

But maybe Shouyou moved too much in his sleep, or secretly had bad breath, or maybe… maybe Kageyama just didn’t want to always be as close to Shouyou as Shouyou wanted to be to Kageyama, and that… Shouyou’s throat closed up, and that, _that_ was like losing— not any loss, either, but that one in middle school, when Kageyama Tobio had looked at him across the net and saw nothing there worth looking at. He knew it wasn’t like that, now, but in the wake of telling Kageyama so much, the rejection felt sharper. Shouyou closed his eyes, and wondered if he’d run into some of those cactus needles after all.

Then Shouyou felt his bed dip, and a draft of cool air slip between his covers as they were lifted, and Kageyama slid in beside him. His movements were uncertain, like even after the blatant invitation, he still wasn’t sure he was welcome. Shouyou kept himself still, and Kageyama carefully dropped his arm across Shouyou’s waist, his chest pressing into Shouyou’s back. Shouyou could feel his heart, beating as fast as a rabbit, through Kageyama’s sweat shirt.

"Is this okay?" Kageyama asked. His breath was so, so warm on Shouyou’s neck.

"Yeah," Shouyou replied, squinting in the dark and trying to make out Kageyama’s fingers splayed on his stomach. "I left the cookies out."

"Your mom and I put them away," said Kageyama. "And swept up the sprinkles. Your dad went to talk to Natsu and your mom said maybe I should talk to you."

"Oh," Shouyou said, and then Kageyama shifted, his nose pushing in to the nape of Shouyou’s neck. Shouyou felt cocooned in Kageyama’s heat, and he wanted to put his hand over Kageyama’s, on his belly, but he wasn’t sure if he should.

"My face won’t tickle you, like this," Kageyama said, then, gruffly, and Shouyou gulped down his reply that he’d maybe actually a little bit liked that, and closed his eyes, willing himself to go to sleep.

It took a long time.

☃

Kageyama was dead to the world when Shouyou woke up in the morning. He took a few minutes, (after carefully escaping from Kageyama’s arms, face hot enough to fry eggs) to just watch him sleep, admiring the way his nose was so straight and how the lines of his face were so soft like this.

Shouyou wanted to reach out and touch; to drag his fingers along the edges of Kageyama’s mouth, and try to figure out why Kageyama had looked down at Shouyou’s.

Instead, he got out of bed and got dressed as quietly as he could, leaving Kageyama asleep in his bed. He walked down the hall to Natsu’s room, which was ajar. He looked in to find Natsu awake but still in her pajamas.

"Can we talk?" Shouyou asked Natsu, sitting down on the floor in front of her. She had a book open, one that Shouyou read to her often at night, about two kittens that went on an adventure. He hadn’t, he thought sadly, read anything to her last night.

She looked up at him. "About Tobio?" She looked so grim that Shouyou had to smile, reaching out and smoothing his thumb down the frown lines in her chubby cheeks.

"Yeah," Shouyou said. "You know why I invited him to spend vacation with us, right?"

"No," Natsu said. "He just came."

"I asked him to come," Shouyou said again. "Because our vacation is the best, and I wanted to share it."

"Doesn’t Tobio have his own family?" Natsu’s hair hadn’t been brushed yet, and it fell in a mess across her forehead and was snarled at the ends around her collar. Shouyou ran his fingers through it to detangle it.

"Kageyama’s family," he said carefully, looking into her eyes, "isn’t like ours."

Natsu stared back, her lower lip jutted out petulantly. "’Cause he doesn’t have a little sister?"

"Yeah," Shouyou said. "His family is just him and his mom, and his mom is really, really busy." Shouyou thought about the text message Kageyama’s mom had sent him, wishing him a happy birthday from so far away, and the look on Kageyama’s face, after, as he tried to figure out how to reply. "And she’s a little like Kageyama, probably, so not so good at showing her real feelings."

Natsu blinked at him, her face all screwed up trying to pull Shouyou’s words apart. "So Kageyama’s family isn’t as good?"

"I’m not saying that," Shouyou replied quickly. "I’m saying it’s different." Shouyou chewed thoughtfully on his lower lip. "I think sometimes, Kageyama gets lonely, though." Natsu’s expression just twisted up more. "I mean, what if when you came home from school, there was no one here?"

"I’d wait for mommy to get back from the store," Natsu said, matter-of-factly.

"Well, what if she didn’t?" Shouyou curled his hands up on his knees. "And I didn’t either? What if every day, you came home, and there was no one here, and you had to make your own dinner and brush your own teeth, and mom wasn’t around to kiss you goodnight because she was out a work, or something?"

Natsu’s lips parted. "That’s what it’s like at Kageyama’s house?" Her eyes were bright, so Shouyou pulled on a strand of her hair to distract her. "He’s alone all the time?"

"Yeah," Shouyou said, and waited while Natsu put together her own opinions. "I think so."

"So you invited him because you felt sad?"

Shouyou frowned. Was that really the reason? Shouyou tried to think back, to that first, spur-of-the-moment, invitation. "Maybe a little," Shouyou admitted. "Especially at first, but I think…" He could feel the heat rushing to his cheeks, just like it had when Kageyama had gripped his hands on the ice skating rink. "I thought it might be nice, to spend my winter holidays with him _and_ with you guys, too." He tugged at the neck of his sweater. Really, he’d come to realize, he’d jumped at the chance to bring Kageyama over for vacation. He’d wanted Kageyama here, as soon as he thought he might be able to have it happen, and he’d _liked_ pulling Kageyama into his life. Shouyou just… likes Kageyama, more than he likes almost everyone else, because Kageyama is sarcastic and mean and selfish sometimes, but his volleyball is as honest and strong as his personality it. "Kageyama’s an important person, for me. Can you understand that?"

Natsu’s eyes were clouded now. "Do you like being around Kageyama more than me?"

"No!" Shouyou leans forward and grabs his little sister into a hug, hiding his face in her soft hair, the same color as his own. "No, of course not, Natsu. It’s just… different." He hugged her a bit tighter. "Think of it like having _two_ big brothers to play with, only the new one is kind of grumpy, okay?"

"Okay," Natsu said, sounding pleased and choked and so young. It made Shouyou’s heart clench, and that, combined with all the confusing thoughts he’d been having, this past week, about Kageyama, left him feeling oddly short of breath.

 _It’s different,_ he repeated to himself, in his head, tasting the word at the back of his tongue and wondering what he meant by it.

Later, when all three of them are in the kitchen, finishing up the decoration of last night’s cookies, sans sprinkles, Natsu watches Shouyou as he gives Kageyama directions on icing the reindeer cookies. When the last of them are completed to everyone’s satisfaction, Natsu had first pick on which one she wanted to try, as usual. She chose a large Christmas tree, even though _yesterday_ was Christmas, and she held it with both hands, staring down at it.

Then she looked up at Kageyama thoughtfully, before deliberately breaking the cookie in half. She held one of the halves up to Kageyama, with as serious an expression as a seven year old girl could manage. "You can have half," she said. "Since it’s your first time."

Kageyama nodded back, just as seriously. "Thank you," he replied, and then Natsu grinned, like she and Kageyama were best friends now or something. Kageyama smiled back, lips curling up around the edges in something soft, like the marshmallows Shouyou had dropped into their hot chocolate, and Shouyou felt his insides bloom with warmth.

Then Kageyama took a bite of his half, smearing green icing across his lips, and Shouyou couldn’t resist teasing him, breaking the moment and resulting in Kageyama holding him in a gentle headlock as Natsu giggled.

That night, Kageyama didn’t bother to make the futon. He just got into bed with Shouyou, like it was something expected.

Up on one elbow, Kageyama looked down at him searchingly. Shouyou didn’t know what he was even looking for. Shouyou was so sleepy, barely able to keep his eyes open.

"Hinata," he said eventually, "about the ice rink."

"I know I’m not a good skater," he mumbled. "You gonna tease me again?"

"No," Kageyama said. Through half-lidded eyes, Shouyou thought he might even be smiling. "I think I covered those bases."

"Then you gonna stop touching me again?"

Kageyama made a tiny hiccupping sound of surprise, and Shouyou tried focus on Kageyama’s face, to no avail. "Hinata, I—"

"I didn’t like that," Shouyou told him, reaching up one hand lazily and dragging Kageyama down, until he was lying half on top of Kageyama, a human blanket. "The not touching." His words were slurring. "It’s strange, when you don’t touch me."

"Okay," Kageyama said, lips brushing Shouyou’s neck, and Shouyou fell asleep, content.

☃

In the four days leading up to New Year’s Day, Kageyama reached out to Shouyou and _touched_ him, as if he were making up for all the lost time. His hands kept finding their way to the sensitive nape of Shouyou’s neck, and his thigh pressed against Shouyou’s under the kitchen table at dinner, and at night, he curled close to Shouyou while they were both still awake, talking about new tosses he wanted to try when vacation was over on the 4th.

On New Year’s eve morning, they biked together to Kageyama’s house to dig his kimono out of storage for their shrine visit. He watered all the plants, and Shouyou marveled at how clean everything in Kageyama’s house looked; like most of it was brand new. All the furniture at Shouyou’s house had deep scratches and sometimes bite marks from back when Natsu was teething, but Kageyama’s house had furniture in a really dark brown, like the furniture in a catalogue or on that channel his parents watched when they folded laundry together on the weekends. 

Shouyou followed Kageyama up to his room, up a narrow staircase that led to a second floor, and there were five rooms along the hall. Kageyama’s was the last one on the left. Inside, it looked more like somewhere someone _lived_ : there were two volleyballs on the floor and a pile of dirty clothes and sports magazines littering the desk. Kageyama had a poster of the the 2010 Men’s Volleyball Team above his bed, and a tablet computer plugged in at the surge bar by his bed.

"You have a tablet?" Shouyou asked, flopping down immediately onto the floor to pull it free from its charger and play. "What’s the password?"

"None of your business," Kageyama replied, plucking it out of Shouyou’s hand and tapping something in with one finger before handing it back. "It’ll only take a second to find it, okay?"

"Sure," Shouyou said, looking through Kageyama’s applications. They were all sports apps. Kenma would probably have a heart attack at the very idea of someone owning a tablet and doing nothing with it but look at sports highlights. "Kageyama, you’re boring."

"What?” Kageyama looked up from where he’d been buried in his closet. Little dust bunnies clung to his hair, and Shouyou laughed. 

"Only volleyball things on here!"

"Like yours would be any different," Kageyama said, rolling his eyes and huffing out an exasperated breath. It stirred his dust bunnies, and Shouyou laughed again, setting the tablet down and crawling on his hands and knees to where Kageyama knelt. “What are you doing?”

"Hold still," said Shouyou, reaching up to slide fingers through Kageyama’s hair, filtering out the dust. "It looked like grey snow."

Kageyama gulped, and Shouyou hadn’t realized he’d gotten in so close until he noticed that he’d braced himself for balance with one hand just over Kageyama’s heart, and that he could feel it beating quickly beneath his palm, like Shouyou’s did sometimes when practice was really exciting. 

"I think it’s in that purple box," Kageyama said, then, voice hoarse, and Shouyou leaned back to pick the box up.

He set it in his lap and opened it, revealing navy and grey silk. "Is this it?" He asked, and Kageyama was silent. He was looking at Shouyou strangely, like he really wanted to say something, but whatever it was, it was caught in his throat, because nothing came out. 

Finally, he bent forward and took the lid of the box from Shouyou, and then smoothed his hand across the material. “Yeah,” he said. "This is the one I usually wear in the winter."

"When else would you wear one, besides Hatsumode?" Shouyou took the lid back and closed it. "I think I only wear one to the shrine visit on New Year’s. I mean, sometimes I wear a yukata to the summer festivals, but I dunno, it’s easier to wear shorts."

"My father’s family is pretty traditional," Kageyama said, getting up and dusting himself off. He looked disinterested, and Shouyou wasn’t sure if that was directed at the mess his closet now was, or because he didn’t want to talk to Shouyou about his dad. Maybe it was both. "We should get back if we don’t want anyone to wait on us for lunch."

He reached out to give Shouyou a hand up. Shouyou took it, Kageyama’s hand big and warm around his own, and he blushed, because who even thought things like that?

"Yeah,” said Shouyou, his own voice hoarse now too. "My mom’s making curry again. I told her it was your favorite.”

"I never even told _you_ that!"

Shouyou smiled at him. "You didn’t have to, you know. I can tell when you like things."

"Not always," Kageyama replied, and then his face when red. "Let’s go, idiot." And he was marching out of his room, down the stairs of his quiet, quiet house, and Shouyou blinked twice, and followed him.

☃

Kageyama looked even taller in his winter kimono, long and lean. His cheeks were flushed with cold, and Shouyou had to admit, Kageyama was kind of…

"You look so handsome, Tobio," said Shouyou’s mom, and Shouyou grinned as Kageyama grimaced. "Don’t you think so, Natsu?"

Natsu hummed in agreement, before her eyes darted up to look at Shouyou, who gave her a covert thumbs up.

"Ah, it’s just the clothes," Kageyama mumbled, and Shouyou snickered, then, at his fumbling compliment-evasion techniques. "Everyone looks a little different, like this."

"Run along," his mom told them both. "I’m sure you both want to try and catch up with your friends."

"Thanks mom!"

The shrine was packed, full of people in kimono standing in line to get their omikuji, hoping for a good fortune to start off the New Year. Shouyou and Kageyama had already gotten theirs, unfurling them under the shelter of the wishing box after dropping in their five yen coins. Shouyou had justhoped as he opened it that it would be better than what he'd gotten before. Last year, it had been disastrous; a curse on his school work, and Shouyou had hung the bad fortune up from the pine tree just inside the shrine property and bought fifteen charms for improved grades and studies, because if he _failed_ he wasn’t eligible for volleyball. 

Kageyama had laughed as Shouyou deposited all of last years charms for burning, but Shouyou had seen him sneakily buy a luck charm for his own grades when he’d thought Shouyou wasn’t looking.

But this year, Shouyou’s fortune was... well, _good_. He’d gotten great blessings if he followed his heart, for his traditional fortune, and along the bottom, the priest had scribbled: _On the first day of the New Year, you will find something new in something old._

Shouyou had read it with a relieved smile, and folded it up, tucking it into the hidden pocket his mom had sewed into the inside of his kimono. Then he’d surreptitiously watched Kageyama to see if his fortune was good, too. He wasn’t sure, because Kageyama’s face had made an odd twitch when he read it, and Shouyou knew that with Kageyama, that could mean any number of things.

Natsu’s fortune had been pretty bad. She’d wailed about it as they walked away from giving their offerings, and his dad had taken her by the hand and led her toward the tree, like he had with Shouyou last year. 

And now Shouyou and Kageyama were wandering off on their own, because they’d promised to meet Noya and Tanaka and everyone else they could convince over by the food stalls just outside the shrine. Shouyou’s mom had looked a little teary-eyed when he’d asked if it was all right if he went to meet with his friends after they’d done the traditional stuff, but she’d easily agreed, in the end.

"When did you grow up?” She asked, and Shouyou just knew that Kageyama would tease him about it later.

But when Shouyou went to move toward the exit, Kageyama grabbed his hand, pulling him up toward the empty part of the shrine property, between two buildings that Shouyou was pretty sure were supposed to be off limits. “WHat’re you doing, Kageyama?! We have to go meet everyone!”

"I have to talk to you," Kageyama said, his face all weird and grim, like he’d eaten five-hundred lemons all at once.

"Can’t you do it later?" Shouyou asked. "We’re gonna be late!"

"It’s the beginning of the new year," Kageyama said. He sounded uncertain, and he was holding tightly to Shouyou’s hand, even though they were free of the crowd. "And my omikuji told me that I would be lucky—" he choked on the words, and Shouyou narrowed his eyes.

"Did it say we’re going to win Spring Highs?!" Shouyou asked, not understanding why Kageyama looked so unsure. He squeezed Kageyama’s hand, but it didn’t seem to help, turning Kageyama redder, and he was starting to look a little green around the edges. "It wasn’t secretly a bad fortune, right? We can still go tie it up to the tree if it’s bad, you know, it’s not to late and your bad luck better not be contagious, Kageyama—!!"

His words were cut off as Kageyama pressed a kiss to his forehead, with lips softer than Shouyou could have predicted, if he’d ever dreamed to predict such a thing.

"Lucky in friendships and love," Kageyama said, leaning back. He was still clutching at Shouyou’s hand, but his eyes looked everywhere but in Shouyou’s direction. Shouyou looked up at him, shocked and feeling warm all the way through, like Kageyama’s lips had shoved him into an oven and he was baking now, like sweet rolls.

 _In friendship and in love_ , Shouyou repeated internally to himself, pressing his free hand to his belly to stop all the butterflies. Were the butterflies baking too? It would be a shame if they all burned to death just by virtue of being in Shouyou’s stomach at the wrong time, and why was he even thinking about this?

Kageyama looked increasingly uncomfortable in the continued silence, and his hand pulled, trying to free itself from the tangle of Shouyou’s fingers. Shouyou… didn’t want that. He wanted…

Well, he’d have to think about that, but for now, he knew that he liked the way Kageyama’s hand felt in his own, and he liked Kageyama’s softest smile, especially when it was directed at him, and he just… He just liked Kageyama, period, and he wanted to know if Kageyama’s mouth would feel as soft to his lips as it had felt brushing his forehead.

So resisting Kageyama’s attempts to escape, Shouyou tugged on his hand and stood up on his tiptoes, pressing his lips to the corner of Kageyama’s mouth. One second, two, and then it was over, Shouyou dropping back down to rest on his heels as Kageyama gaped at him.

"You!"

"We’re a team, right?!" Shouyou ran his thumb up the outside of Kageyama’s. "That means you don’t get to just go deciding things on your own!"

"I—"

"Next time," Shouyou said, "just toss me the ball, and let me choose where to spike it." He met Kageyama’s surprised gaze defiantly. "Trust me like I trust you to get me the ball in the first place, jerk!"

"This isn’t volleyball!" Kageyama shouted back. "How was I supposed to know if you even—"

"Well, now it’s obvious I do!" Shouyou replied, getting up into Kageyama’s face. "Isn’t it?!"

Kageyama faltered, his eyes dropping from Shouyou’s to Shouyou’s mouth, and that was all the warning Shouyou got before Kageyama kissed him, for real, square on the lips.

Shouyou didn’t know how to kiss someone, but not knowing had never really stopped him before, surging forward until his and Kageyama’s noses mashed together. Kageyama shifted, his head tilting slightly right, and then Shouyou could get closer, fisting on hand in Kageyama’s soft jacket as Kageyama’s hand sunk into his hair.

Kageyama tasted like the cookies they’d snuck that morning, and like green tea. His lips were soft, so soft, and Shouyou had never really thought much of kissing—the whole idea of it was bizarre. But this, Kageyama’s warmth seeping into him as they clung to each other… This felt like flying, and Shouyou’s heart was beating just as fast as when he’d first hit one of Kageyama’s tosses, with his eyes tightly closed and his heart opened wide.

"What are you doing?" Kageyama asked. His mouth was puffy, his hair messy, and Shouyou felt a thrill of victory, that he’d made Kageyama like that, when Kageyama tried so hard to be cool.

"Checking for cactus needle wounds," Shouyou answered, not bothering to hide the giddiness rushing through him right now, all adrenaline and happiness. "Since you’re so prickly—"

"You little--" Kageyama growled, blushing still, _still_ , and Shouyou laughed, running out from their alcove and back into the crowd, dragging his friend along with him, down out of the shrine and onto the busy street.

"You know," Shouyou said, as he waved to Asahi and Noya, who he’d just spotted in the crowd, "my omikuji told me not to be afraid to follow my heart this year." He peered up at Kageyama out of the corner of his eye. Kageyama was looking back down at him, and there it was, the smile that made Shouyou’s heart just want to stop right there in his chest. "So you gotta smile at me like this, okay? Not that scary one you try sometimes."

"My smile’s not scary!" Kageyama shouted at him, chasing him toward their waiting friends as Shouyou laughingly released his hand.

☃

His door opened, letting in just a thin sliver of light from the hallway. "Shouyou?"

"Natsu?"

Creeping footsteps, and then a warm body crawled into bed with him, small and wearing soft flannel pajamas.

"What’s wrong?" Shouyou mumbled. He’d been halfway to sleep, but he drags himself back toward wakefulness. "Did you have a bad dream?"

"No," Natsu said, nuzzling her nose into Shouyou’s neck. "I just want to do this before you get too old to do it."

"Don’t you mean, before _you_ get too old to do it?” Shouyou tickled her, and Natsu grabbed both his hands to stop him.

"No,” Natsu said. "Mommy says someday you’ll have to sleep with the person you’re in love with.” Shouyou was definitely awake now, wide-eyed. 

"In love with?!” Shouyou sat up in bed. “That’s… I’m sixteen!”

"But Shouyou sleeps with Kageyama already,” Natsu said, around a yawn. It was totally bogus, Shouyou thought, that she’d come in and woken him up and now it was _Shouyou_ , not Natsu, that wouldn’t be able to go back to bed.

Later, after Natsu had fallen asleep, hugging Shouyou’s pillow and taking up too much space on the bed, Shouyou got out of bed and went over to his desk, where his kimono hung sloppily over the back of his chair.

His phone vibrated. 

_go to sleep, dumbass_ the text from Kageyama read, and Shouyou’s heart rattled around in his chest like his ribs was a cage and it just wanted to fly away. He put his hand over it just in case.

As he packed away his kimono, quietly, so as not to wake Natsu, his omikuji fluttered free of his obi and fell to the floor. _On the first day of the New Year, you will find something new in something old._ He traced the lines of the kanji, barely visible in his dark room, licking his lips and remembering the way Kageyama’s had felt, pressed against them.

He grinned.

Then he took his omikuji and slid it into the top drawer of his desk, between two books he would probably never read that his aunt had given him for his birthday last year. Shouyou wanted to keep it safe, after all. It was lucky.

As he crept back into bed, nudging Natsu over slightly with his hip, he slept easily, looking forward to the coming year.

**Author's Note:**

>  **hatsumode** : the first visit to the shinto shrine in the new year! usually people go between jan 1st and 3rd. one wears kimono and it's a really ritualized thing. you pick up new omamori (charms) and bring the old ones to be burnt, and make wishes for the coming year  
>  **omikuji** : you receive this random fortune after you make an offering (like 5 yen) at the shrine, and then picking it from a box, hoping for it to be lucky. if it's bad, you should be sure to tie it to a pine tree on the shrine property to avoid a cursed new year!


End file.
